Design and CFD-Based Performance Optimization of Small-Scale Solar Meat Dryer with Curved Obstacles

Abstract

Meat and other food items can be dried to preserve it for a longer time. Indirect solar dryers are ideal dryers for meat as it is cost-effective and easy to manufacture. Moreover, higher-quality dried meat is produced compared to traditional methods. However, FPSAH should be optimized to be efficiently used for meat drying. The aim of this study is to analyze the performance of a solar meat dryer by incorporating curved obstacles on the back plate of the solar air heater duct. In this study, solar meat dryer with a capacity to process approximately 25 kg of meat was considered in the analysis. The performance of the solar air heater was studied through CFD by incorporating various number of curved obstacles (i.e., 4, 6, and 8) using ANSYS FLUENT. Five different mass flow rates ranging from 0.03625 -0.0072 kg/s were considered as boundary conditions at the inlet of the solar air heater duct for all cases, with a fixed inlet temperature of 302K. Mean collector temperature corresponding with the respective mass flow rates were applied as boundary conditions for the collector. Optimal exit air temperature of 333K which gives 328K in the drying chamber was achieved in the solar air heater duct with 6 obstacles at mass flow rate of 0.03625kg/s. The thermal efficiency of the solar air heater channel with 6 obstacles was 10.8% higher than that of the channel without obstacles. Moreover, the highest thermal efficiency of 82.97% was achieved at a mass flow rate of 0.0725 kg/s in the duct with 8 obstacles. The thermal efficiency of the duct with 8 obstacles was 24.1% higher than that of the smooth one at the highest mass flow rate. Significant pressure loss was observed at the duct with 8 obstacles at mass flow rate of 0.0725kg/s which was 20 pa greater than that of duct without obstacles, which increased the fan power by 0.82 watt.